Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Emirates have a new partnership called Your World Rewards offering reciprocal benefits to Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) and Emirates Skywards elite status members. Members will earn bonus Starpoints when flying Emirates and bonus miles when staying at SPG hotels on top of their usual earnings.

SPG Gold and Platinum members will earn one Starpoint per dollar, in addition to Skywards miles, for all eligible Emirates operated flights and all Emirates Skywards Silver, Gold and Platinum members will earn the equivalent of one mile per dollar, on top of Starpoints, for all eligible stays at Starwood hotels and resorts worldwide. Conversion rates will be adjusted for local currencies.

Emirates Skywards Gold and Platinum members will be able to access SPG elite check-in, 4pm late checkout and complimentary in-room Internet access. SPG Platinum members will receive priority check-in and boarding when flying Emirates as well as complimentary e-gate access for flights in and out of Dubai.

Emirates serves 140 destinations in more than 80 countries across six continents and Starwood has 1,200 hotels–75 percent of new hotels are opening in emerging markets–and the Middle East is the third fastest growing market behind China and India. There are currently 82 SPG hotels in the Middle East region with a further 20 more to open by the end of 2015. Members can link their accounts at http://www.emirates.com/yourworldrewards or http://www.spg.com/yourworldrewards

Bottom line: This new partnership is similar to SPG’s Crossover Rewards with Delta SkyMiles. Differences include Delta elite members get hotel room upgrades at Starwood hotels (at check-in) and SPG elite members get flight upgrades when flying Delta. Expect Starwood to make partnerships like these two with other airlines in the future.